San Pedro Pet Clinic Under Heavy Criticism

Customers are accusing the Peninsula Pet Clinic in San Pedro of overcharging, and treating customers and animals poorly. The clinic is owned by Dr. Anyes Van Volkenburgh, who in December 2020, led a protest against lockdown orders in San Pedro.

Although San Pedro resident Mitzi Morin has never patronized Pet Peninsula Clinic, she was compelled to get involved with the clinic after seeing a July 21 posting on Facebook by Lana Haley, who couldn’t pay $243 to the clinic to reclaim a cat. Haley said she had already paid $500, but the staff demanded an additional $243. Morin volunteered to pay it and bring the cat to the owner.

When Morin entered the clinic, she said that both Van Volkenburgh and her receptionist started yelling at her.

“They were both screaming, honest-to-God, like The Exorcist,” Morin said. “I’m a 45-year retired psychiatric nurse. I’ve seen it all, inpatient, outpatient. I was rattled.”

Morin said that Van Volkenburgh told her the clinic could not accept her payment because she did not own the cat. But the cat’s owner could not bring in the payment because Van Volkenburgh  had already banned her from the premises. Meanwhile, every time Morin spoke, Van Volkenburgh screamed that she was adding an additional $100 to the bill, until the total came to $643.

At this point, both Morin and Van Volkenburgh called the Los Angeles Police Department. It took the police 30 minutes to convince Van Volkenburgh to return the bill to the original $243.  But Van Volkenburgh demanded cash. Fortunately, Morin had that much on her. She paid Van Volkenburgh, who gave her the cat. Morin said she felt physically sickened and did not get an itemized bill for what the clinic did to the cat, or a diagnostic impression.

The next day, Morin called Peninsula Pet Clinic and requested Van Volkenburgh’s license number. The staff refused. Eventually, Morin got the number from the Veterinary Medical Board; she said she spread it over Facebook.

Efforts were made to contact Van Volkenburgh, but as of the time of production, neither she nor any representative of the clinic responded to requests for an interview. However, Van Volkenburgh did post a message in response to negative Yelp reviews on the clinic’s website, but the date she posted it is unclear:

We make the world a better place by being here every day and helping animals. That’s our duty and our purpose. We are very skilled and very good at what we do.

What do you hope to accomplish by writing nasty Yelp reviews? What is your purpose?

Yes, there is definitely a pandemic going on out there. A pandemic of STUPID. And no mask is going to fix it.

No, I do not wear a mask to see my patients.  I believe in freedom. The USA is all about Freedom.

She went on to write that the clinic has seen an increase in business since the pandemic began. She wrote that the clinic serves more than 1,000 animals each month, and has 300 new clients each month.

She went on to explain her reasoning for her high prices.

“Instead of yelping about me, why don’t you look at your own integrity and ethics and consider whether you deserve to own a pet,” Van Volkenburgh wrote. “Because you probably don’t.”

“Would you want cheap care for your mother?” she asked, rhetorically. “A discount doctor for your child? I hope not. Then why would you want that for your pet?”

The clinic has a two-star rating on Yelp. Not all of the reviews are negative, such as Patti S., from San Francisco, California. She said that she does not understand the negative reviews, and that she took her pet to the clinic on June 26, 2021, when other veterinarians were not available.

“I found the staff to be extremely nice, and Dr. V was very impressive too,” Patti said. “I felt they were very compassionate, AND professional.”

Patti said that her pet stayed in the clinic for a few days and fully recovered. She also said her pet seemed to be comfortable with Van Volkenburgh.

“It seems that most people are complaining about rude staff (which I never encountered) and money gouging,” Patti said. “I feel you get what you pay for. I would definitely recommend them.”

However, other patients left far more negative reviews, such as Jen M., from Kernville, California. She said that when she started taking her dog to another vet, it started doing better, and did not have any of the health issues the clinic said it had.

“They bullshit and misdiagnose so they can charge you for unnecessary x-rays scans and ultrasounds,” Jen said. “I have spoken with some of my other friends and they experienced the same thing. It’s an automatic $500 every time I go in.”

Ryan Gierach, retired editor and publisher of WeHo News in West Hollywood, California, is still in a dispute with Peninsula Pet Clinic regarding charges from December 2020. He took his dog to the clinic in November 2020. It was suffering from congestive heart failure.

“[I] was overwhelmed and only interested in getting him right,” Gierach said. “So, I looked past the anti-vaxxing, and the anti-masker attitudes there.”

After the staff treated his dog, Gierach got it back and was given one-month’s prescription for its medication. Gierach said he was told to return in a month for blood work and radiology to ensure the medication was working. When he did, everything was fine, but the staff did not give him any more prescriptions.

“I called back,” Gierach said. “I got guff from the people behind the desk. I was told that it was my responsibility to get those prescriptions over to them.”

Gierach said he told the staff he did not receive any prescriptions from the Peninsula Pet Clinic. When he got no response, he began sending emails demanding that the clinic fill the prescriptions. Gierach said he soon received a cease-and-desist letter from the clinic’s attorney, claiming he was sending too many emails.

“According to the lawyer, I would not be charged, because the services that I required were not provided,” Gierach said. “I was forced to take my dog [elsewhere] and spend over $700 now for the same tests, plus an emergency room visit, in order to get immediate medications.”

In April 2021, three months later, Gierach said the clinic charged him for the prescription anyway.

“That left me, a fully disabled U.S. vet with only my pension to rely on these days, utterly and completely broke in the middle of the month, without any way to buy food,” Gierach said.

As for Morin, she now is part of a private Facebook group with more than 200 members that is trying to get the clinic out of business. They are staging a protest on Aug. 14. In addition, Morin filed an official complaint with the Veterinary Medical Board, which is investigating the clinic.

“I want to get her unlicensed, because I don’t want her to be just kicked out of town and go somewhere else to do her dirty business,” she said.